 |
| Photo Story |
The divine system of religion is as complete as the system of nature. Everything in it is adapted for its purposes, and every genuine want of humanity is provided for. The perfection of the natural order is a sign that there is perfect provision for our supernatural requirements if we care to look for it. God does not give His children a stone for bread; He does not render His highest gifts nugatory by leaving them incomplete. Religion, like the civil order, is a visible organization of men subject to worldly conditions, and it needs an outward machinery of government. As in the State, a paper constitution, however excellent, is worthless unless connected with a living active organism. Experience has shown that the written word of God, when divorced from the rest of the divine system, speaks with an uncertain sound that conveys contradictory meanings to different minds, and that it has never yet welded men into a solid unity such as Christ declared His kingdom to be. What a mockery is a revelation which no two men understand alike, a legal code which has no judicial court to explain, dispense, enforce it, a kingdom that has no administrative head, a corporate body which has no common idea or joint action! It would not be worthy of Him who said, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you" (John xiv. 18), that He should leave us to be "tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. iv. 14), and dependent as to our highest interests on the vacillations of human opinions. How great the benefits which God has conveyed to you in the Church!
